The next morning, Shouto woke up before Zuko or Iroh. This was a rare phenomenon but he'd had a hard time sleeping last night because of all the noise. He wasn't frightened of the loud, booming noises, but they made him uncomfortable and they made it hard for him to sleep.

So he was up early that morning, staring at Zuko, waiting for the both of them to wake. Zuko looked far better looking without his face twisted in anger or annoyance. He looked calm, kind of cute. Like a puppy maybe. His scar was more prominent than Shouto's, obviously a far worse burn, covering not just his eye, but his ear and down his cheek. His eye had even been damaged unlike Shouto's.

He didn't even know why he was observing Zuko like this, but he had nothing better to do. So he observed Iroh next. White beard, white hair, round, peaceful face.

Todoroki moved back to Zuko. His hair was cut short now, looking less threatening than it had in his previous hair style. Shouto liked the hair style before, but he liked this one too. It made him look a bit softer, a bit more peaceful. Shouto reached out to touch it.

His hand just barely grazed the top of Zuko's head before the other bolted up and turned to him with his fists up. Shouto pulled his own hands back and they sat there, blinking at each other.

Zuko's face tinged pink and he looked away. Shouto didn't know why he did that. "Um… what were you doing?" he grumbled.

"Touching your hair."

"Why?"

Shouto shrugged. In that moment he had wanted to, so he had tried. Zuko had stopped him before he could touch his hair for too long, but still. "Can I touch it more."

Zuko's face turned brighter, "No!" he sounded angry, but he stuttered on his words unlike he would if he were making some dramatic, angry speech. So Shouto wondered what he was feeling, but couldn't read him at all.

Shouto didn't usually read Zuko, because he knew the other was mostly angry, so he didn't have to look for any other emotion.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to upset you." Shouto said, blinking. Was touching his hair really such a big deal? Maybe it was a Fire Nation thing.

"You didn't- it doesn't matter," Zuko crossed his arms. "Why are you up so early anyway?"

"Couldn't go back to sleep, so I decided to just get up."

"Well, good, you can help me start packing. We have to move out today."

"What?" that proclamation reminded Shouto of yesterday. "How about we leave later tonight?"

"The sooner the better."

"Ah, but I met a girl last night."

Zuko paused, his next question in an odd tone of voice Shouto had also never heard out of him before, "A girl?"

"Yes, she was very nice." Shouto said. "And she invited us to a party tonight and I told her I would try to get you to go."

"No, we don't have time for parties. We have to leave. Now."

"I'm sure it couldn't hurt to just go for an hour or two." Shouto said. "I think it's supposed to be an all day thing so we could pack up and then go over."

"That doesn't sound like a good idea. Who is this girl anyway?"

"I think she's a local. She was pretty."

Zuko choked, "Pretty?"

"Yes."

Zuko stared at the ground and then looked over at Iroh who was still sleeping. "Fine, but we're leaving immediately."

"Should we wake up Iroh-san?"

"No, he's still hurt, he should rest… we'll be back before he wakes anyway. It will be fine."

"Okay. Why do you want to go all of a sudden?"

"No reason really, just want to see this girl you have so much to say about."

"Oh, alright. Then let's go."

Zuko took one last glance at his uncle and then turned to Shouto. "Alright, but only for an hour then we have to come back, pack up quickly, and leave."

"Okay."

Zuko sighed. He wished Shouto would stop saying that, but he just wanted to go to this party and get a good look at this girl Shouto was so enthralled with. If Todoroki liked her then she really must be something special.

They walked out of the rundown house and made their way through the forest towards the town Todoroki had gone to yesterday. Walking back with Ty Lee had made him remember the way clearer so they reached the town without much trouble. They were starting to set up for the party, it looked like and people were already out on the streets, walking, despite the early morning.

Shouto assumed they had set up this morning instead of last night because of the horrible storm. All the decoration would've flown away.

They started walking around too with some of the other towns folk and talked along the way, mostly about Ty Lee. "She seems to be a very happy person, I think you'll like her."

Even if Zuko was one of the grumpiest people he'd ever met excluding Bakugou, Shouto thought he would still appreciate Ty Lee's bubbly attitude.

"It's weird I don't see her, maybe she is still sleeping." Shouto told Zuko.

"Maybe." Or maybe she was secretly an evil bender who wanted to enslave these towns folk because of whatever nefarious reasons she had.

As Shouto was looking around he thought he caught a glimpse of Ty Lee. Turning to check again he saw her behind one of the corners of the houses. She waved and beckoned him over before disappearing behind the corner. "Oh, she's over there." Shouto grabbed Zuko's hand and led him over to where he'd seen her.

They rounded the corner only for Shouto to be met with several jabs to the body. The jabs didn't hurt very much, but they made his body feel incredibly weak and numb wherever they hit.

Shouto fell to his knees and Zuko jumped back as he was surrounded by Ty Lee, Azula, and some dark-haired woman Shouto hadn't seen before.

But he was confused. Ty Lee had seemed nice. Had he been right to be suspicious?

With Azula standing in front of him, he figured the answer was yes.

Zuko tried to hold them off best he could, but his fire bending wasn't enough to subdue all three of them and he too, got jabbed with Ty Lee's interesting punches.

Shouto felt betrayed and he didn't even know what the expression on his face was but it made Azula laugh. "Two traitors down, now we just have the old man to go. And he's injured, and let me guess? Still asleep? This will be even easier than I thought. Mai, get them into the carriage and stand guard. Ty Lee, you'll come with me. Uncle will be waking up to a nasty surprise this morning."

"Azula…" Zuko growled, glaring at her with all the strength he still had.

Azula didn't respond and only smirked at the two of them before walking away, her posture perfectly straight and not one hair out of place.

As they walked away, Ty Lee turned and gave him a look. It was almost apologetic, but nowhere near apologetic enough for Shouto to forgive her.

He'd been such a fool.

The dark-haired woman, Mai, put them both into the carriage, first him, and then sometime later Zuko. He could only guess they had been talking about something out there.

Now Zuko was grinding his teeth even harder than when he'd first been caught, which Shouto hadn't thought was possible, but Zuko never ceased to amaze him with his angry outbursts. Normally Shouto didn't like angry people, they were immature. But there was something about Zuko. The pure fury out of such a tiny body was almost hilarious. Like a small dog barking and growling at all the bigger ones to prove himself stronger.

Present time

"This is all your fault." Zuko growled.

"How was I to know." Shouto grumbled. It had been an innocent enough offer, how was he supposed to know that it was trap.

"I'm going to kill you."

"It was an accident."

"I hate you."

"I hate me too."

Zuko fell silent, unsure what to say to that. Todoroki always had a lot of remarks Zuko wasn't sure what to say to.

Finally he groaned, "Why are you like this. You're so depressing."

"I let myself get tricked." Shouto sighed. "It's not one of my finer moments. And I didn't just get myself into this mess, I got you into it too. I should've been more cautious."

"Yeah, you should've been!" Zuko yelled.

"Hey, we'll get out of this." Shouto reassured. "Soon, I assume this body weakening stuff will wear off and we'll be able to fight again."

"I'm sure my sister has accounted for that." Zuko rolled his eyes.

"I really don't think she has. She doesn't know yet." Shouto stared at Zuko blankly as if that vague sentence had given him all the answers.

"Know about what?" Zuko huffed, getting more annoyed by the second.

"My quirk."

Zuko was confused for a couple seconds before his eyes lit up in recognition. He remembered that conversation, where Shouto had revealed himself. Where there were no more secrets he was hiding from Zuko anymore.

That day Zuko felt betrayed and lied to, but had grown to trust Todoroki more after he revealed his true origins. "You're right." There was something his sister didn't know about. And it was this boy sitting right in front of him.

"I guess you can't always account for everything."

Zuko's heart beat erratically inside his chest, but not from anger or resentment, from excitement. When was the last time Azula had failed in anything, when was the last time something hadn't gone according to her plan.

Maybe life wasn't as bad as he thought. Moments ago everything was hopeless. Now he had a plan, now they were getting out of here.

The affect Ty Lee's jabs had on them wore off on Shouto first. He had handcuffs on, and if he burned them, that girl Mai might smell it, and the carriage might catch on fire, and that wouldn't be too good either.

But Shouto had another power. One side of the cuff started to freeze. Ice encased it and it got so cold. Colder, and colder, freezing. Eventually it broke and Shouto used his free hand to ice the other cuff.

That one eventually broke off to, clattering to the floor softly.

He froze Zuko's too and the other flinched with the cold from Shouto's quirk but both their unnaturally high body temperatures helped regulate their body heat. Soon, Zuko was able to move again and he shook the door of the carriage ever so slightly.

It didn't budge, they were locked in. "Fuck it." Zuko said and lit the door on fire.

How impulsive. the door burned away quickly and other parts of the carriage started catching fire.

Zuko and Shouto got out of the carriage, Zuko bending the flames away from them both. It almost reminded him more of that one waterbender girl and what she did.

When they were both out of the carriage, they were met almost instantly with knives flying at their faces. "Run." Zuko ordered, and that's what they did.

They ran from her, and they ran as fast as they could, but Mai was swift as well. She was catching up with them and there was nothing they could do.

"Zuko, why don't you go help Iroh-san, I will hold Mai-san off."

Zuko panted as they ran and glanced at him, "Are you sure?"

"Yes, I can handle her." Shouto assured. He'd dealt with worse than knives before. Though he had to admit, her technique was astounding and she was incredibly fast, he had no doubt he could beat her eventually. "Go help your uncle."

Zuko frowned but nodded and started running quicker, ahead of Todoroki. Shouto halted and turned to face Mai, sending a blast of fire at her. He hated using his left side, absolutely hated it. But for now, he would rather keep his control of ice a secret. It might come in handy later.

And now this was life or death, there was no avoiding this anymore. He had to defeat Mai here and now and hope that Zuko and Iroh-san could take care of Ty Lee and Azula.

He would rush over there as soon as he was done with her. "Going to fight me yourself?" her voice was quiet, calm, almost monotonous. It reminded Shouto a bit of his own.

"Yes."

"To protect Zuko?"

"Yes." Shouto said again.

She narrowed her eyes and threw another knife. Shouto dodged, rolling to the side before it could make contact. "Are you two close?"

Shouto didn't know what she meant, but it seemed to lead to a longer discussion Shouto wasn't sure he was ready for.

Still there was only one answer to that too.

"Yes."

Haha... hi.